Allentown officer's 'spidey senses' helped crack triple homicide

HANDOUT, UNION COUNTY PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE

Todd West, 22, of Elizabeth, N.J., is charged in the killing of four people in New Jersey and three people in Pennsylvania. West allegedly randomly shot at people in Easton, Palmer and Allentown, resulting in three deaths on Sunday, July 5, 2015.

Todd West, 22, of Elizabeth, N.J., is charged in the killing of four people in New Jersey and three people in Pennsylvania. West allegedly randomly shot at people in Easton, Palmer and Allentown, resulting in three deaths on Sunday, July 5, 2015.

Allentown Patrolman Robert T. Busch was on duty Sunday morning when dispatchers radioed an ATL — an attempt to locate —— for a light-colored, possibly white, vehicle that may have been involved in a shooting that left two friends dead several blocks away.

Driving in his patrol car around 7:40 a.m., Busch noticed a white Mercedes SUV parked in a lot on Fourth Street near Hamilton Street. It didn't seem suspicious, and the ATL description didn't mention a make or model.

But Busch's "spidey senses, his training, kicked in," and he went in for a closer look, said Steven Luksa, first assistant district attorney in Lehigh County.

That decision — by a patrolman with a little more than a year on the streets — proved crucial in capturing three men, one a suspected serial killer now charged in seven homicides in the Lehigh Valley and New Jersey, and possibly preventing more terror on the streets.

"He could have decided it's just a white car, no big deal, and kept on driving," Luksa said. "I can only speculate what would have happened next."

A day after the SUV was discovered, two other one-year Allentown policemen chased down Todd West, 22, of Elizabeth, N.J., and his cousin Robert A. Jourdain, 20, of Easton, after they allegedly robbed three people in the city. Kareem Mitchell, 23, of Newark, N.J., was arrested later in the day.

All three face homicide charges in the shooting deaths of Francine E. Ramos, 32, and Trevor D. Gray, 21, both of Allentown, and Kory Ketrow, 22, of Easton.

Authorities say all three victims were gunned down by West in a 45-minute span for no known reason. West was charged Thursday with killing four people in New Jersey, including one of his cousins.

The suspects have a hearing scheduled for Monday, but that will likely be postponed.

Allentown officers found Ramos and Gray dead at Sixth and Greenleaf streets at 3:59 a.m. Sunday, but investigators had little to go on to start the case — no shell casings and no witnesses.

They were told a light-colored vehicle might have been in the area at the time. Surveillance cameras couldn't confirm that information since there are none in that intersection, Luksa said.

So, as Allentown and Lehigh County investigators canvassed the neighborhood for witnesses, collected evidence from the crime scene and reached out to the victims' relatives and friends, an alert to help find the light-colored vehicle was dispatched.

Hours later, Busch was in the area of Fourth and Hamilton streets, close to police headquarters and the courthouse, when he spotted the white SUV, Luksa said. From several feet away, nothing stood out.

"The officer did what a good police officer would do," Luksa said. "He wanted to rule it in or rule it out."

When Busch got a closer look at the SUV, he saw damage to the front and rear passenger side and it looked as if it had been in a crash with a burgundy vehicle, the same color as the one Ramos was driving.

The SUV's tail light was broken, so investigators compared it with the debris found at the crime scene, Luksa said, and they found a match.

Looking through the window, police spotted a box of ammunition and what appeared to be a punched-out ignition, Luksa said.

Two more pieces of the puzzle.

Around that time, Easton investigators alerted Lehigh County investigators that they had a pair of shootings in Easton, one of them killing Ketrow as he walked home in the 1100 block of Lehigh Street.

In the other, a man and woman were not hit and told police the gunman fled in a white SUV.

By then, detectives had enough to secure a search warrant for the SUV, where they found a revolver, a Walmart bag containing 18 spent shell casings and an open box of ammunition, Luksa said.

Luksa said he doesn't want to think what would have happened if police didn't find the car as quickly as they did.

"Armed with only a certain set of facts, the officer made the correct decision and his quick thinking and action initially took their means of transportation, their weapon and their ammunition and opened up the door to help solve the case," he said.

Detectives discovered the SUV belonged to Mitchell's mother and were able to get into contact with him Sunday, Luksa said. Mitchell agreed to come in for an interview Monday.

Bullets were recovered from the victims and the crime scenes and compared with the revolver and spent casings in the seized SUV by county detective and ballistics expert Kurt Tempinski, Luksa said.

"He was able to quickly determine that not only did they come from the same gun, but from the gun that we have," Luksa said.

Luksa said he doesn't know where the three men went after the shootings, but the investigation found that they stayed at Hamilton Tower at some point Sunday or Monday.

West and Jourdain allegedly robbed three people at knifepoint and were chased down by officers James Nuskey and Preet Bajwa around 9:30 a.m. Monday. Mitchell turned himself in later in the day.

Allentown Assistant Chief Bill Lake said Busch, Nuskey and Bajwa may be new officers in the city, but not to law enforcement, describing them as "conscientious and motivated."

"This case combined a lot of talented police officers and investigators with several different agencies," he said. "I am definitely pleased, and not surprised, with the quick arrests."

Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli also praised the work of Easton and Allentown police and county detectives in getting the alleged killers off the street so fast.

"We are just lucky that this did not go on longer than it did," he said. "It's unfortunate we lost lives in the Lehigh Valley. It could have been much worse. Luckily, we got to them sooner rather than later. They need to be locked away."